WBAL meteorologist Tony Pann says the path of Hurricane Sandy is changing, and the risk of storm surge in Maryland is not as great as was once predicted.

Pann says the latest computer models show that the storm is more likely to make landfall around Atlantic City late Monday night, or early Tuesday morning.

"It means for us we will get some very heavy rain, wind gusts 40 to 50 miles per hour, two to maybe six inches of rain, but we would be more likely to get some snow on the bottom side of the storm, as it wraps the cold air in on the bottom of the storm," Pann told Maryland's News Now.

Pann says any snow accumulation is likely to be minimal, because the ground temperatures are still warm.

Pann says the storm is still three days away, and the forecast track could change.

Emergency officials in Maryland say residents should prepare for flooding, high winds and lengthy power outages, as what is now Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit the east coast early next week.

Governor Martin O'Malley has already signed a State of Emergency declaration. The order gives the state flexibility to deploy the Maryland National Guard and to rush aid to local emergency officials.

BGE spokesman Rob Gould says customers will be getting automated calls from the utility today reminding them to stock up on batteries, bottled water, flashlights and other supplies.

The utility is bringing 500 out of state utility workers to Maryland in anticipation of thousands of outages.

State and local emergency officials are monitoring the storm.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is urging residents to prepare for severe weather that she says has the potential to have an Isabel-type storm surge.

The 2003 storm caused severe flooding in the city.

The mayor met Friday morning with agency heads and says the track of Hurricane Sandy is the biggest concern for city officials who are hoping it will come ashore north of Maryland. That would result in less storm surge up the Chesapeake Bay.

City officials say residents should plan ahead for power outages and have a battery-powered radio, flashlight and extra batteries as well as a three-day supply of water. Those with medical needs also should be prepared for possible power outages and flooding and ensure they have prescription drugs and other supplies on hand.

The mayor announnced the city is offering sandbags for those who live in flood-prone areas.

Sandbags are available at the Broadway Pier in Fells Point until 9 p.m. tonight, and on the parking lot of 1401 Thames Street fr0om 9 p.m. until

announced free sand and sandbag distribution for city residents and businesses located in flood-prone areas. At the direction of Mayor Rawlings-Blake, city Department of Transportation workers will assist residents and businesses in bagging and loading sand at select locations near the waterfront."Baltimore always hopes for the best and plans for the worst," Mayor Rawlings-Blake said. "This storm has the potential for Isabel-like storm surge, and I want to make sure our residents and businesses have an opportunity to prepare for possible flooding."Sand and sandbags will be available at the Broadway Pier (south of Thames Street in Fells Point). City workers will assist residents until 9:00 pm.Beginning at 6:00 pm tonight, a second sand distribution location will open on the parking lot at 1401 Thames Street (on the water side of Thames, at the foot of Caroline in Harbor East) and will remain open until 9:00 pm.The Fells Point distribution area will open again tomorrow.

In Harford County, officials say residents in low lying areas need to prepare to evacuate. Emergency Management Director Rick Ayers has sent residents a robocall noting part of the county could receive up to 12 inches of rain. He says a storm surge is possible up the Chesapeake Bay.

The Maryland Emergency Management Agency, as well as various county emergency agencies are expected to open their emergency operations centers Sunday to respond to the storm.

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport says some airlines have already announced travel advisories and revised ticketing policies due to the storm. Airlines may cancel flights at BWI Marshall and other airports around the eastern U-S before or during the projected heavy storm.

BWI is advising anyone with plans to fly this weekend or early next week should check with their airline for up-to-date flight information.The airport says it is reviewing its emergency procedures and coordinating preparations with airlines and other tenants.

Sandy Hits Bahamas

State and local emergency Hurricane Sandy raged through the Bahamas early Friday after leaving 22 people dead across the Caribbean, following a path that could see it blend with a winter storm to hit the U.S. East Coast with a super-storm next week.

Sandy knocked out power, flooded roads and cut off islands in the storm-hardened Bahamas as it swirled past Cat Island and Eleuthera, but authorities reported no deaths in the scattered archipelago.

"Generally people are realizing it is serious," said Caroline Turnquest, head of the Red Cross in the Bahamas, who said 20 shelters were opened on the main island of New Providence.

Sandy, which weakened to a category 1 hurricane Thursday night, caused havoc in Cuba Thursday, killing 11 people in eastern Santiago and Guantanamo provinces as its howling winds and rain toppled houses and ripped off roofs. Authorities said it was Cuba's deadliest storm since July 2005, when category 5 Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people and caused $2.4 billion in damage.

Sandy also killed one person while battering Jamaica on Wednesday and nine in Haiti, where heavy rains from the storm's outer bands caused flooding in the impoverished and deforested country. Police in the Bahamas said a 66-year-old man died after falling from his roof in upscale Lyford Cay late Thursday while trying to repair a window shutter.

On Friday morning, the hurricane's center was about 15 miles (25 kilometers) east of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas and 480 miles (770 kilometers) south-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. Sandy was moving northwest at 10 mph (17 kph) with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph (130 kph).

Government officials in the Bahamas said the storm seems to have inflicted the greatest damage on Exuma, where there were reports of downed trees, power lines and damage to homes.

With the storm projected to hit the Atlantic coast early Tuesday, there was a 90 percent chance that most of the U.S. East Coast would get steady gale-force winds, flooding, heavy rain and maybe snow starting Sunday and stretching past Wednesday, U.S. forecaster Jim Cisco said.

A new tropical storm watch was issued early Friday for a section of the U.S. East Coast extending from Savannah, Ga., northward to North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Sandy was expected to remain a hurricane almost until reaching the U.S. shoreline, probably early Tuesday.

In the Bahamas, power was out on Acklins Island and most roads there were flooded, government administrator Berkeley Williams said.

On Ragged Island in the southern Bahamas, the lone school was flooded.

"We have holes in roofs, lost shingles and power lines are down," said Charlene Bain, local Red Cross president. "But nobody lost a life, that's the important thing."

Steven Russell, an emergency management official in Nassau, said docks on the western side of Great Inagua island had been destroyed and the roof of a government building was partially ripped off.

Sooner Halvorson, a 36-year-old hotel owner from Colorado who recently moved to the Bahamas, said she and her husband, Matt, expected to ride out the storm with their two young children, three cats, two dogs and a goat at their Cat Island resort.

"We brought all of our animals inside," she said, though she added that a horse stayed outside. "She's a 40-year-old horse from the island. She's been through tons of hurricanes."

In an announcement at the end of Cuba's Thursday night newscast, Cuban authorities said the island's 11 dead included a 4-month-old boy who was crushed when his home collapsed and an 84-year-old man in Santiago province.

There were no reports of injuries at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but there were downed trees and power lines, said Kelly Wirfel, a base spokeswoman. Officials canceled a military tribunal session scheduled for Thursday for the prisoner charged in the 2000 attack on the Navy destroyer USS Cole.

In Haiti, Joseph Edgard Celestin, a spokesman for the civil protection office, said the country's death toll stood at nine, including three people who died while trying to cross storm-swollen rivers in southwestern Haiti. He did not provide specifics of how other people died.

Officials reported flooding across Haiti, where many of the 370,000 people still displaced by the devastating 2010 earthquake scrambled for shelter. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from 11 quake settlements, according to the International Organization for Migration.